The Buffalo Sabres signed veteran goaltender Alex Lyon to a two-year contract in the offseason to back up to the projected starter, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Little did I, Sabres fans, and the organization know that Lyon would be one of the Sabres’ best players to start the season.
Alex Lyon Is Taking Advantage of His Opportunity
As mentioned above, Lyon was not supposed to be the Sabres’ starter coming into the season. Luukkonen was the projected number-one but dealt with injuries during training camp and toward the end of the preseason; he was ultimately out of the lineup for three weeks before making his debut in a 4-3 overtime loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
Lyon, this season, has played in nine of the Sabres’ first 11 games and has posted a 3-4-2 record, a 2.90 goals-against average (GAA), a .912 save percentage (SV%), and one shutout which came during a 3-0 win against the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. He has been nothing short of impressive, making save after save. They’re going to ride with Lyon until the wheels fall off, and he deserves the starting job until his plays proves otherwise.
He currently ranks 17th in the NHL in SV%; however, his GAA is 29th, suggesting he’s facing a lot of shots; indeed, he has faced 30-plus in eight of his nine starts and a league-high 294 total.
Related: Sabres Need to Move On From Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Lyon has been a journeyman over the last five seasons, as the Sabres are the fourth team he’s played for in that span. Outside of the 2023-24 season with the Detroit Red Wings, where he played 40 games, he’s only played 20-plus games in a season one other time, and that was last season. He’s proving to the Sabres that he’s more than just a journeyman who is keeping the crease warm until Luukkonen becomes healthy or until Devon Levi is ready to take on a full-time NHL role.
Can Lyon Sustain This Level of Play?
The Sabres have not had goaltending this good since Ryan Miller was in the organization. The closest the team has come, at least with its current core, was during the 2023-24 season, when Luukkonen played in 54 games and posted 27 wins, a 2.57 GAA, and a .910 SV%. Is there a way that Lyon can play in 45-50 games this season and win 25-30 while keeping up his current numbers? Possibly.
If he does want to sustain this level of play, the team defense is going to have to stay consistent. With Michael Kesselring coming back into the lineup in the team’s 4-3 overtime loss on Monday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the defence core finally got healthy. The Sabres’ blue line could become a top-10 unit in the NHL and help Lyon in the crease.
Something to note is that not all of his elite play is because of the defense. In fact, according to MoneyPuck, he has a goals saved above expected of 3.6, which ranks 18th in the league, and a wins above replacement of 1.6, which ranks seventh.
Lyon is not only making the saves he needs to make, but also making saves on shots that have a higher percentage of going in than not and that generally go in on most goaltenders. We will see if Lyon can keep up this level of play: I, Sabres fans, and the organization hope he continues to play this well throughout the remainder of the season.
